Placement of Lepidiota ciliata Britton, 1978

In Britton’s (1978) key to the Australian Lepidiota species, L. ciliata Britton, 1978 falls as an isolated species late in his key. Britton (1978) noted his difficulty with the placement of L. ciliata, remarking “This species has also been included in the key to Antitrogus spp. to allow for the possibility of interpretation of the very elongate scales as setae [at couplet 19(18)] in the key to genera of Melolonthini ”. Weir et al. (2019) grouped L. ciliata with L. quinaria Britton, 1978 at their couplet 22, suggesting that they were distinct from mainstream Lepidiota species.

I consider that the “very elongate scales” of Britton (1978) should be considered setae (Figs. 10–12) and, also because L. ciliata has a five-lamellate club in both males and females, it should be placed in Antitrogus . This resolves Britton’s dilemma and simplifies keys to genera.